1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to cellular telephone system call features and management. More particularly, the present invention is directed to a system for and method of notifying a cellular telephone customer of a missed call using a short text message.
2. Background of the Invention
Cellular telephone usage has been growing at an exceptional pace. People use cellular telephones for a variety of reasons including safety, increased availability while away from a conventional wireline/landline telephone and/or because cellular telephone services provided by cellular telephone providers can offer greater value compared to conventional wireline service. In all cases, however, cellular telephone customers typically seek a reliable alternative to conventional wireline means of communication wither because they are away from the wireline means of communication, or because access to those means of communication is inconvenient.
To enhance a cellular telephone customer""s sense of staying in touch, cellular telephone service providers offer voice mail service as one of many service offerings. This well-known service causes an incoming call to a cellular telephone, which is not available to receive the incoming call, to be forwarded to a voice mail service where the caller can leave a message for the cellular telephone customer. Typically, an incoming call will be forwarded to voice mail when the cellular telephone is powered off (i.e., not registered), when the cellular telephone is being used (and no call waiting feature is available), or when the cellular telephone customer configures his cellular telephone to forward incoming calls to voice mail even though the cellular telephone is powered on and available to receive calls.
Since voice mail is often an add-on feature that is not typically included in basic service plans offered by cellular telephone service providers, customers who desire voice mail must pay extra for this service. However, not all customers are willing to pay the full fee for voice mail service. On the other hand, some of these same customers might still desire a service that provides information regarding incoming calls that might have been missed.
The present invention addresses and overcomes the drawbacks of having to offer only conventional cellular telephone voice mail service to cellular telephone customers by providing Short Message Service (SMS) message notification to a cellular telephone customer about incoming calls that are missed. That is, the present invention provides a means for notifying a cellular telephone customer of missed calls (e.g., because the cellular telephone is not registered) without requiring the cellular telephone customer to purchase a relatively expensive voice mail add-on feature or option as part of their cellular telephone service plan. The present invention is operable with both landline and cellular telephone-originated calls.
In the landline-originated implementation the present invention is preferably implemented in a telecommunications infrastructure including a landline telephone that is connected to a central office (CO), which itself is connected to an SS7 gateway. The SS7 gateway is able to communicate with both a SMS message center and a home location register (HLR), which is often incorporated with a mobile switching center (MSC). The MSC, in turn, is in communication with cellular telephones. In accordance with the present invention, in addition to employing the SS7 gateway to perform well-known call setup functions, the SS7 gateway is programmed or is modified to include a xe2x80x9cmessage generator,xe2x80x9d which becomes operable when the HLR returns, in response to a location request query from the SS7 gateway, an xe2x80x9caccess deniedxe2x80x9d response with a reason code of xe2x80x9cMS Inactivexe2x80x9d, xe2x80x9cBusyxe2x80x9d, xe2x80x9cNo Pagexe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9cUnavailable.xe2x80x9d
The message generator preferably generates a message containing the landline caller ID/calling name ID and any other text message that will fit within the remaining portion of the maximum allowable characters in a SMS message. The information for creating the SMS message is available at the SS7 gateway since the CO-typically provides that information to the gateway when the landline call is originally placed. The generated SMS message preferably also includes the time that the missed call was attempted.
Once the message is complete it is sent to the message center (MC) where it is stored in memory until the called cellular telephone is powered on, registers, or otherwise makes itself available to the cellular network. At that time, the MC delivers the short message that was generated, originally, at the SS7 gateway, thereby providing missed call notification to the cellular telephone customer.
Thus, the present invention provides numerous advantages, not the least of which is that a cellular telephone customer can receive a missed call notification service that, while not as extensive as voice mail service, nevertheless provides useful and timely information to the customer about missed calls. Further, the cost to implement the service of the present invention is relatively low since it is not necessary to purchase and field expensive voice mail systems to retain messages. Accordingly, customers will be more willing to purchase the less expensive service.
When the call originates from another cellular telephone, the call is passed to a servicing mobile switching center (MSC) and associated SS7 gateway in which the message generator of the present invention may be implemented.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide methods and systems for providing missed call notification to cellular telephones from landline or cellular telephones.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a missed call notification using a short message service message.
It is another object of the present invention to provide notification of a missed call due to a cellular telephone that is powered off or is otherwise unavailable to the network.
It is also an object of the present invention to provide a message generator that is co-located or integral with a SS7 gateway.
It is another object of the present invention to generate short message service messages at a SS7 gateway and pass those messages to a message center where the messages await distribution to wireless device customers, including cellular telephone customers.
It is yet another object of the present invention to block or filter predetermined missed call notifications using a message generator at a SS7 gateway.
These and other objects of the present invention will become apparent upon a reading of the following detailed description in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.